The former Benfica player was considered Liverpool’s worst signing

He played for Benfica and Sporting, but it was from the Estádio da Luz that he left for a big transfer. At the time, Liverpool paid 20 million euros for him, which ended up becoming the biggest regret of the Reds’ management at the time.

All of this has now been revealed in the book “How to Win the Premier League: The Story Behind the Data Revolution in Football,” written by Ian Graham, former director of scouting at Liverpool.

In the book, he reveals that Lazar Markovic was Liverpool’s worst signing, and the biggest regret of sporting director Michael Edwards.

“Markovic looked very good in our data analysis, but we had only seen a few minutes: the Portuguese league wasn’t fully covered by our suppliers in 2014. The €20 million price tag for Markovic was very high. That summer, Griezmann signed for Atlético Madrid for €30 million and Sadio Mane signed for Southampton for €11.8 million,” Graham wrote.

“There was conflicting information, Eddy (Michael Edwards) didn’t know what to think and watched 20 games on video. He saw some very good performances, but also some very bad ones, which is normal for young players. We signed Markovic and many other European clubs congratulated us in a way we had never seen before.

What is certain is that the Serbian player did not reach the potential he showed at Anfield Road. After one season he was loaned to Fenerbahçe and after another season he was loaned to Sporting. He ended up playing for several clubs without ever establishing himself, until he returned to Partizan Belgrade.

“Eddy cites the signing of Markovic as his biggest regret, but at least we learned from the experience. This was the failure that led to the addition of an extra layer of detailed video analysis for all serious transfer targets that Liverpool considered from that point on.